Well then, here we go with chapter 2 of our story. Apologies for the 1 day delay for this chapter, I caught a damn cold. Good way to start a compromise, huh? Anyways, I hope you enjoy the show!

Chapter 2 - Judgment and Sin and Punishment

"All rise."

The court hall felt cold to Nena. She was wearing those uncomfortable handcuffs and an ugly, to her taste, prisoner's outfit. Black is such a boring color. She rose from her seat when that serious uniformed guy ordered, then seated again as the military old men got seated on the front, facing her.
She decided trials were dreadful affairs.

"We'll begin the trial of prisoner Nena Trinity. She stands accused of 10 different charges of terrorism and 3 charges of sabotage. The accused has pleaded guilty in the preferrence trial and as such is awaiting the court's decision."

Nena had been told that pleading guilty would help her case. Since she didn't really care in the end she just went along with it, so the proceedings sounded like something completely alien to her. She turned to the back to where that Kati lady was sitting. Nena supposed she had been decent, even if just to get information from her. She quickly turned back around when one of the stuffy old military men called her name.

"Miss Trinity, the charges for terrorism are rather severe. Being over 15 means you're still held under certain resposibility, but the fact that you're still a minor helps you. Reviewing the facts on the charges we can see that it was indeed you who attacked that civilian event in Spain. Such an act would warrant a capital punishment, were you an adult. However, and as mentioned, your status as a minor helps you avoid that fate. Furthermore, the information you have given us regarding the terrorist organization 'Celestial Being' which lead to its eventual capture helps your case as well."

The old man took his glasses off after putting the papers of her case down, then he stared right at Nena. Her tiredness made her barely hold the stare in attention. She wasn't sure if she was glad for avoiding death. Since she was at the mercy of these people, revenge seemed like a far off option now.

"Miss Trinity, in this war-torn world we've seen many, many cases like yours. It is not the first time a child-soldier engages in acts of civilian murder on the scale of yours, only the means were uncommon. But your circumstances tell us you simply didn't know any better, your upbringing as a tool of terrorism is a situation we're familiar with. Indeed, it'd be easy to simply accuse you of mass murder and bring justice to whoever remains to grudge you."

She wondered why the man had stopped. She really had felt nothing at murdering those silly peoples at that party so she had expected they'd punish her with that one. Maybe she was supposed to plead here?

"But it is also our responsibility as adults to try and repair what we can, from involving children on war. Even though it wasn't ourselves who made you join the terrorist organization, it will be us who will try and make you realize there's more than murder and death to be found in this world. I will now pronounce your sentence."

Nena was just utterly confused now, she couldn't understand what the old man was going on about. She felt like shouting to just condemn her to death already, but it seemed like they'd just lock her up or whatever.

"Nena Trinity, after deliberation, evidence review and under article 35, section 20 of the martial penal code regarding child soldiers and the rulings thereby, you are sentenced to 5 years of rehabilitation, under close supervision by this martial court, subject to yearly reviews of your mental state and every two years afterwards as precaution. You shall also be placed under the care of a member of the military, appointed by this court at a later date, no later than 3 days hence. Court is adjourned."

The gavel's slam startled Nena after hearing her sentence. So they decided she was crazy and had to go under brain...bleaching to fix her. She wasn't sure if they were stupid or naïve. Maybe both. In any case, it seemed that at least 5 years of deathly dullness awaited her.
On second thought, she supposed this was worse than death after all.

Patrick decided this was the most ludicrous order he had ever received, even more ridiculous than that one a couple years ago, when his sergeant ordered him to walk his dogs, back when he was a freshly graduated officer. Or that one when he was ordered to waiter it up at that general's party in Sicily. He just didn't understand why they'd use a genius like him for such assignments.

But he would have gladly done all those thrice again if it meant not doing this one.

"I'm sorry, Colonel, but I'm not sure I'm qualified for this order." He pleaded to Colonel Mannequin.

"Actually, I can't think of a better person for this assignment, lieutenant." His colonel sentenced. She was standing right next to that freckles kid. For christ-sake, she was even holding her purple toy.

"Colonel, I really have no experience taking care of kids." He pleaded once more.

"Hey, I'm not that young of a kid! And I don't like it either, but you should feel honored to be around someone like me!" The freckled twerp yelled at him. "You can't be more than 4 years older!"

"I'm more than 10 years older than you, you squirt!" He finally lost it. He was an experienced, wordly man, damn it!

"What did you just call me?! Do you have a death wish, huh?!" The kid came closer to him, staring him up nose to nose and growling.

"Fight time! Fight time!", Purple Haro helpfully added.

"Enough!". Colonel Mannequin shouted. "I tire of this childish charade! Lieutenant, you will obey and you will do so to your very best, this is not up to discussion. Clearly I have been very lenient lately towards you after your return, for you to entertain defying such an order from your superior." She pulled this Nena kid back as the damnable twerp kept growling and staring, holding her doll in one arm while placing her hands on her hips. The nerve!

But still he was cowed by his beloved colonel. "Y-yes, Colonel! As you say, Colonel!" He quickly saluted and stood sharply.

"And you, Nena, calm down already. He's not as bad as he seems, you'll be fine." She placed a hand on Nena's shoulder. "I'll be making routinary visits to lieutenant Colasour's house to check up on you." She paused for a moment, taking a deep breath. "On both of you."

"Tch." Was all that Nena said, her head turning to the side and scowling.

Patrick had to admit that this particular situation's silver lining was magnificent, though. He barely contained the excitement at the prospect of being visited by the colonel regularly.

"Well, come on in, I guess." He said, resignated. He stood at the entrance, with an arm extended towards the inside of the apartment.

Nena entered without even looking at him, her backpack bouncing as she walked, gathering on the surroundings. She looked at the garish decorations, a white dog statue, some medals on top of an armoire, and...was that a mobile suit's model kit? Wasn't this guy allegedly like 27?

"What a dumpster..." She continued onwards. "Hurts my eyes! Hurts my eyes!" The damnable purple toy opined. Patrick had to rein himself not to blow up again.

"Yeah yeah, whatever. Come with me, I'm showing you where you're gonna crash." Patrick said, annoyed, and started walking up the stairs on the left. Nena soon followed.

"This is it. I was using this room for guests but now it'll be yours while you live with me. You can use that bathroom over there." He pointed to the door at the end of the hallway. "And you can write what you need at the pad stuck to the fridge. They just send the stuff over when one hits 'Send'. And don't bother about hitting 'Send' at whatever time, it only works with my ID signature." He warned.

"Jeez, I wasn't going to..." Nena muttered to herself as she walked into her new room, placed Haro on the table, then tossed her backpack on the bed. Patrick simply stood on the doorway, as if he was gathering his courage. She turned to him once she realized he was just standing there. "What?" She asked as she crossed her arms.

He simply took a deep breath then managed to put his thoughts in order. Someone had to be the grownup here. "Look." He started. "I know you don't wanna be here, and to be honest it feels awkward for me as well. But the Colonel never does anything without a reason, so we're stuck with each other, for now. Why don't we try to at least be civil to each other?" He said as he extended his hand towards her.

Nena simply stared at him, then at the hand. To be honest with herself, she couldn't find it in her to be polite or whatever. On the other hand it'd get real tiring, real fast if they kept it up. Just as his arm started feeling uncomfortable, she shook his hand. "Fine, whatever. No promises, though". She conceded. He celebrated inside his head, surely the colonel would appreciate it.

"Alright then, if you need something else, just holler. My room is down the hall to the left. Can't miss it." He informed her, then turned around to exit the room. He paused, then said without turning. "Uh...welcome to your new home." Then quickly exited.

Nena remained standing, arms crossed, reflecting on that notion. "New home, huh?" She thought. She sat on the bed and rested her elbows on her legs. "It's not home without my brothers."

A few minutes later, Patrick opened the door to Nena's room, he had forgotten to tell her about her psychologist sessions, which were required by the court. "Ah, Nena, by the way, your first sess-" He froze instantly as he saw Nena on her pink underwear, in the middle of changing her clothes to sleep. What seemed like an eternity passed, both stared at each other.

"OHMYGODGETOUTGETOUTGETOUTPERVERT!" She screamed, then tossed her backpack, the pillow, and even Purple Haro with unnatural strength as she covered what was left of her decency. They all impacted straight on his face with unnerring accuracy. The impacts pushed him out and knocked him into the hallway's floor. "Idiot! Pervert!" She screamed once more, as she slammed the door shut.

"I guess that's one way to break the ice..." He ruefully shared with Purple Haro who was next to him, laying for a bit on the cold floor before he stood up and went to his room to clean the injuries that Haro's impact made on his face.

"So violent. So violent."

"What's the story behind that purple eye?" Kati questioned her subordinate. While he was a bit...disperse, he wasn't known as clumsy. In a way she already had her suspicions about the cause but she wanted to confirm.

"It was an acc-" Patrick froze mid-sentence when the colonel sharpened her gaze, in a way that said 'I won't tolerate lies'. "Nena tossed her toy to my face..."

"And why, pray tell, would she do that?"

"It was an accident! For real this time!" He defended himself as he repeated his first sentence, but now with a different meaning. "I'm not used to having guests so I didn't knock!"

She could hardly believe it, was this some sort of comedy she was unaware of? "...you're telling me you walked on her changing clothes?"

He simply turned to the side, still standing in attention.

A sigh escaped her lips. "Don't let it happen again. Now follow me, I have an assignment for you today." She rose from her seat and walked out of her office, closely followed by Patrick. Without turning around she briefed him. "We're beginning tests on the Throne Drei. It's capabilities are much superior to the GN-X, but we still need some flight and mobility data, so we're using you as a test pilot for today."

"Ma'am, with all due respect, but what about our actual test pilots?"

"They didn't cut it. And as loathe as I am to divert my combat pilots for this, we need one with sharper senses on this one." She lifted her ID Card to the reader, and the hangar's door opened. "The tests will be conducted through the whole day. Will Nena be ok by herself?"

"Yeah, when I left she was watching TV and eating snacks. I suppose a life of normalcy is doing her a world of good, without having to worry about war and murder. She's mostly either sullen or snarky, but if one thinks about it, what teenager ain't like that? Seriously, it's like having a younger sister."

"I'll go check up on her on my lunch break." She stopped before the Throne Drei, then turned around. "I know you're on your R&R, now that things are pretty much peaceful without Celestial Being, but we need to get more information from this suit and I couldn't think of anyone better. Do not disappoint me, lieutenant. Now go change and report to the Chief Engineer once you're ready."

Patrick exulted in the praise and saluted his beloved colonel as sharply as possible. "Yes ma'am! Right away ma'am", then he ran away towards the pilot's lockers.

"Chief Moretti, regarding the mobile suit's specifications, what's your forecast on today's test pilot performance?" Kati asked the Chief Engineer as Patrick went away running.

A man on his early forties, Luigi Moretti was a tanned, muscular man, with a trimmed moustache and a square jaw. His eyes spoke of experience and confidence, as did his mannerisms. He was wearing the standard issue maroon worksuit his crew was also wearing. "To be honest, ma'am, I don't think a regular pilot would cut it, even someone with as much experience as lieutenant Colasour. From the preeliminary data analysis and past test pilots results, this thing needs nothing short of a genius to even move as it should. On the hands of our guys, it's nothing more than a glorified workbot." He replied, then shouted for one of his subordinates to give him the specs pad. "Look at this. It seems that on top of the genius level piloting skills, it requires some sort of interface with an external operative system, some sort of client/server deal going on. I can only imagine what for and I have no idea what kind of server connects to this thing. We're gonna get nowhere if we don't find answers and my guys are at their wits end." The chief engineer provided.

"I've been thinking about a solution to that already but we'll need for our final piece to be ready before that."

The chief fully turned towards Kati and spoke in a lower voice "You mean the kid that was piloting this suit, huh?"

Kati took off her glasses, rubbed her eyelids and drew a long breath. "We can't involve a minor on this, as you know. but she won't be a minor forever. While they still don't intend to involve her any further in armed conflicts, the higher ups recognize the need to consult her on this one. As far as I'm concerned, if that's what it takes to further bring peace, then so be it. God knows this peace is balanced on fear-spawned pacts and treaties. Not everyone's going to fall back and accept the new order of things. We need to be prepared." Kati sentenced as she stared at the mobile suit in question.

Luigi looked up at the suit as well, in resignation. "This sure is a crazy situation we're in. But you've always known better, colonel. We'll keep doing our best."

She put a hand on his shoulder. "I appreciate your efforts, chief. And your crew's. We all do."

"How're you feeling, Nena?" The funny old lady asked her. Or is it kindly? Nena wasn't sure, she supposed the common term would be kindly, what with this woman being like 50-plus years old, and her woolen sweater/long skirt combination wasn't helping her case. Nena rested her chin on her palm, at least the seat was comfy, she reflected.

Man, this lady was patient, though.

"Fine, I guess. Bored?"

"I see. What is it that has you bored?" The kindly-funny lady asked as she smiled her kindly-funny smile.

"Life, I suppose." Why was she taking notes? "The house is boring. TV is boring. And this damn city is boring." Oh right, the lady's supposed to fix her crazyness, she supposed all these notes would help her decide on the medication or whatever.

"Where have you been to in the city, Nena?" A kindly smile, again.

"Uh..." Nena reminisced. "The base, the park." Stupid kids and stupid dogs. "The library, the corner store. Fine, I haven't been out too much." She conceded.

"You mentioned the library. Do you like to read?"

"Yeah"

"What do you like to read, Nena? Any genre in particular?" The lady put her pad on the table to her left, then her hands on her lap.

Nena changed palms, turned to the window to look at the tree's leaves swaying softly to the wind. "Computer software stuff. History novels. Trashy romance novels." She turned her eyes back to the lady.

"Oh! And what was the last book you read?" Funnykind leaned forward.

"Hmm. A book about artificial synapse coordination and its mobile suit application. No wait, that was the -last- last one. Uh, something about Alexander the Great. Wasn't bad." It was a really good book.

"Very nice." The lady took her pad back and scribbled some more. Nena realized she had made her talk about something interesting to herself. Damn sneaky lady. Sneaky-kind.

"Nena, have you considered taking classes? Going to school?" The lady suddenly said and looked straight at her.

"What? What for?"

"Well, if you're bored, occupying yourself with learning could help with it. Besides." She put the pad down and paused. "The state won't take care of you forever, you will need to have means to sustain yourself."

Nena scoffed at that. "I don't need to study for that, I can totally work on mobile suit development or something. I know I'm qualified." She turned her gaze back to the outside.

"Interesting. But you don't have a degree to back it up, do you? Most employers, even in the military, require it." The lady smiled her sneaky smile. "Consider it while we have our next session. It wouldn't necessarily be in the immediate future but I'd like you to think about it. There are many, many possibilities, many paths an intelligent woman such as you can follow." She paused as if waiting for Nena's reply.

So she turned her gaze back to the lady. "Alright, I'll think about it." To be honest the idea wasn't entirely off-putting. She did enjoy working on mobile suits, piloting them, killing on them, whatever. It made her feel alive, in control. She supposed they wouldn't let her kill on them anytime soon though, so the next best thing would be development.

She did have some people on her debtors tab after all, she had to plan for the future.

Needless to say, this one and for a few chapters onwards it's gonna take place on what would be between season 1 and season 2 of the original series. Again, any comments, criticism or even just to say "hi" is greatly appreciated. See ya next time!